All Civil and Military Officials in a Panic - Chapter 2

Chapter 2
The entrance to the Examination Hall really had exploded.

There were even more people than last time, and they were making an awful racket.

Someone was standing on one of the stone lions, shouting, “A rigged result! This has to be rigged! A woman won Huiyuan? Who would believe that if you told them?”

A whole crowd beside him joined in, jeering and egging him on.

When I walked over, I was carrying a bow in my hand.

The crowd automatically parted to make way for me.

I figured they must have been stunned by my overwhelming presence.

In front of the list.

First place: Wang Guilan, Shuntian Prefecture.

I said to the crowd, “Anyone here who refuses to accept it, step forward.”

No one moved.

“We’ll confront each other right here and let the officials from the Ministry of Rites judge who’s in the right.”

Still, no one moved.

The man standing on the stone lion jumped down and shrank back into the crowd.

An old man squeezed in from the edge of the crowd and said with a beaming smile, “Young lady, this old man is impressed!”

Only later did I learn that old man was the Minister of War.

On the day of the palace exam, I met His Majesty for the first time.

Inside Taiji Hall, thirty successful candidates stood in a row.

His Majesty sat at the very top.

When my name was called, I stepped forward.

“Student Wang Guilan pays respects to Your Majesty.”

“Raise your head.”

He looked at me, and I looked back at him.

He seemed about twenty-four or twenty-five, and he was rather fair and clean-looking.

I thought my father had been wrong. This man looked perfectly normal. How was he moody and unpredictable?

“That grain transport method of yours. Did your mother teach it to you?”

“Yes.”

“What is your mother’s name?”

“Huo Jin. During the Late Emperor’s reign, she once delivered a border terrain map to Your Majesty.”

He said, “I still have that map in my collection.”

Then he asked, “What official post do you want?”

“I don’t know.”

He laughed.

The expressions of the ministers standing nearby all changed.

Judging by the way they looked, it was as if His Majesty laughing once was some monumental event.

After he finished laughing, he said, “You will go to the Censorate.”

“Why?”

“Because there are no twists and turns in your mind.”

I thought to myself: He actually believed that.

Fine. Whatever he says goes.

Palace exam ranking: third place, Tanhua (third place in palace exam).

Appointment: Investigating Censor, seventh rank.

After I returned home, I told my father, “Father, you said His Majesty was moody and unpredictable, but I think he’s quite nice.”

My father said, “What do you know? The Censorate! That’s a place where you offend people! And with that personality of yours!”

My mother asked, “What personality does she have?”

“She doesn’t understand what people mean! That place is full of people scheming against each other all day long. How is she supposed to fight them?”

My mother started cracking melon seeds off to the side. “If she doesn’t understand, and you do, then why don’t you climb higher? You’ve been climbing for twenty years and you’re still the Grand Tutor. When I was at the border, the people who schemed against me are buried in places I can’t even remember anymore.”

My father shut up.

I sat nearby eating and didn’t make a sound.

Actually, what I wanted to say was: Father, don’t worry.

The Censorate is pretty good.

I hear there are a lot of cases there.

I was just worried I wouldn’t have anyone to practice on.

On the day I received my appointment, I went to the Ministry of Personnel to collect my official credentials.

To put it plainly, my job was the kind specifically meant to pick out other people’s mistakes.

My colleagues were all very polite, at least on the surface.

When they met me, they called me “Lord Wang” and nodded with a smile.

But as soon as they turned around, someone muttered behind my back, “Her brain doesn’t work all that well.”

Not only did I hear it, I remembered it.

On my fourth day in office, I received my first case.

Zhou Shili, Secretary of Revenue, had been accused of embezzling three thousand taels of silver.

The case files were placed in front of me. I read them for a long time and noticed one problem.

The accusation was filed on the tenth day of the third month.

But tucked inside the case file was a leave request.

Zhou Shili had taken leave and returned to his hometown on the first day of the third month. On the tenth day of the third month, he had been in his hometown, eight hundred li from the capital.

I called the clerk over and questioned him.

The clerk insisted, “It was the tenth day of the third month! The sun was bright! I saw him with my own eyes at the entrance of the Ministry of Revenue!”

His gaze flickered for a moment.

I said, “Secretary Zhou was in his hometown on the tenth day of the third month, eight hundred li from the capital. Who was it that you saw?”

The clerk was dumbfounded.

And just like that, the case was closed.

Zhou Shili was released without charge, and the clerk was sentenced to military exile for false accusation.

That afternoon, Zhou Shili came specifically to thank me.

He lowered his voice and said, “Lord Wang, that clerk was acting under someone else’s orders. Zhao Yan, the Vice Minister of Revenue. His father is the Grand Preceptor, and his sister is the Imperial Consort. Everyone in the Ministry of Revenue knows, but no one dares to say it.”

I said, “No one dares to say it? Then I’ll investigate.”

“You?”

“He instructed someone to make a false accusation. I have to investigate.”

When Zhou Shili left, the way he looked at me was like he was looking at a dead woman walking.